Day
by Heather Giesbrecht
Summary: It'd been an uneventful day, and now it was a beautiful night. A/U - no Matrix, shapeshifting. Neo/Smith. Chap 4. - Horse posted. Complete.
1. Day

It was a clear, star-filled night as a blue jay alighted on the fallen and frosted leaves that crackled under his weight. The blue jay shifted anxiously and rustled his wings; he raised his head and scanned the sky above. He'd been waiting for this meeting since his uneventful day had started, hopefully it would end far better than it had begun.

A brief, harsh croaking filled the air as a raven swept into the clearing and landed across from the blue jay. Light, dark-blue, and white speckled wings wrapped around the bigger bird, who moved in and ran his beak through the lighter-blue, and rather messy, head feathers.

Seconds later, the blue jay shifted into a tall, pale-skinned, black-haired and brown-eyed man as the raven shifted into a slightly taller, tan-skinned, brown-haired and bright-blue eyed man. Despite his form, Neo was the quietest of the pair and Smith was the louder one. Smith who'd saved him from being hawk food by attacking and drawing it off in this same clearing.

They both said simultaneously, "I missed you.", and laughed.

The blue-jay shifter ran a hand through his hair and asked, "What do you want to do ?"

"I want to stay here, I have had a far too eventful day, today."

In response to that, as he lay down on the leaves, he pulled the other with him. "Hmm, well, at least, you **had **something happen to you today, I didn't. Work was boring as always."

Smith replied, "Maybe I can change that."

"How so ?"

His heartbeat fluttered as the raven shifter murmured something in his ear. He smiled and chuckled, "You asked before I could, but, yes, I will."

Two plain, silver rings were slipped on and they lay content as Mother Nature sang them to sleep.


	2. Safe

_Author's Note:_ Thanks to _dracomalfoylover666_ for the favourite/follow and for the last bit of inspiration to post more chapters - flashback chapters.

* * *

**Safe**

Smith let out the raven equivalent of a sigh and stretched his wing tips to circle into a thermal updraft. It was a cold, but beautiful fall day as the leaves on the trees below drifted to the ground. Yet, it was not that way for long as a blue jay's distinctive high-pitched scream of alarm echoed up from below. He looked down to see a hawk attacking the blue jay who lay with his wings inadvertently splayed on the ground.

Shifters had an innate sense that differentiated between normals and their 'kind'. The blue jay was a shifter and the hawk was a normal animal. Likely because it was angry the hawk ignored the jay's, "Stop it, I'm not stealing your food, damn it. Help !"

It made him angry and he tucked his wings in to dive at the hawk and slash at its head with his talons. After he drew a bit of blood, he backed away to batter the bigger, brown bird with his wings. It let out a shriek of rage as he rolled onto his back and pulled a few of its tail feathers out.

He flipped over and flew out of the clearing, he knew just the place to go. Darted into the thermal as the hawk passed right beneath him and spiralled upward, before he struck out for the cave. The sense of danger made him back-wing just before the hawk dived inches past his beak, righted itself and lashed out at him. Pain seared through what would've been his cheek in human form.

If he'd been able to he would have smiled as he dove under the hawk, through the nearly bare branches of a poplar tree and into the limestone cavern. Twenty seconds later, when the hawk flew in, he shifted back to human form and the bird slammed into his chest. He glared down at it with cold, blue-eyes and it gave an alarmed screech of its own and flew off.

Something about his eyes, perhaps it was their incredibly pale, white-blue shade that always scared the normal animals and some shifters too. Mother thought it was the remnants of her family's magic; mostly, because Grandmother had possessed magic and the same eye color in human form. However, she'd been an albino raven instead of black. While he was proficient in healing spells, he'd never been particularly good at offensive spells, preferring normal methods like guns for self-defence, if flight wasn't the best inconspicuous answer.

A minute later, he returned to the clearing to check on the blue jay. When he couldn't see the other bird, he asked, "Where are you ?"

There was a soft, human voice from below one of the far trees, "Over here."

He landed in the middle of the clearing and shifted back to look at the other man. As he walked up, he noted the man's features - big, dark-brown eyes, pale-skin and short, black-hair.

Those pretty eyes stared up at him, as the blue jay shifter stammered with a faint blush, "A-ah, t-thanks. I tried to scare it off before obviously it didn't work. I'm Neo, Neo Anderson, err, my dad was Greek by the way. Are you all right ?"

"I am fine and it is very nice to meet you, Neo. My name is Smith, Adrian Smith. How, exactly are **you** feeling, Neo ?"

While Neo answered, "It…well, it got my back once or twice.", the smaller shifter stood up and turned around. Even though the cassock itself was fine, its back was soaked in darkening and spreading rivulets of blood.

Not knowing how the black-haired man would react, he asked as a distraction, "Is that cassock of yours for the nest or the cache ?"

"Hmm, cache, it used to be my Great-grandfather on my mom's side, his name was Alexander McCaughey. Alexander was a catholic priest before he left Scotland, met my Great-grandmother and left being a priest behind him. It's ruined isn't it ?"

"No, just a little bit bloody. I can heal you easily, but, I doubt you want me to do it here. My house is not far, but I am afraid you will have to put up with my housemates if they are around."

The black-haired man turned around, "They can't be that bad, I've probably heard worse. Are they shifters or normals ?"

He started to lead the other away as he replied, "Shifters. Jones is a wolf and Brown is, well, Brown is a skunk. Obviously, Mother Nature does not like him very much."

"Poor guy, so, how'd you all get to be friends ?"

"My father saved Jones's father when he got lost in a snowstorm and Brown's father just happened to be a mutual friend. Still, it is very easy for them to get on your nerves, even if you are FBI."

Neo muttered, "That's why you looked familiar. You know, my mom was an FBI Agent, too, before she was killed. I almost thought about joining the NYPD, but Grandmom didn't want to lose me the same way. Plus, I've never been good, heck, I've never even been horrible with guns. I don't know what you'd call it, but, Mother Nature just doesn't want me using guns. Apoc, Switch and Trinity are a lot better at guns than me. Then again, their all police or military and I'm just the office guy. Should've told you, Smith, I ramble when I'm nervous."

Looked beside him, "I make you that nervous ? I'm sorry."

"No ! It's just my boss, Rhinehart was being an asshole, again, for no reason today. I mean, for molting's sake, seriously, you'd think I'd smashed his eggs or something."

They had walked out of the forest and prairies and back into the suburbs. His response slipped out without thought, a rare occurrence with him, "I know exactly what you mean, Director Manning is one too. He isn't even a shifter and he has tried to get me fired, at least, four times. I miss Director Salis, I got on well with him and I know Agent McCaughey-Anderson got along splendidly with him, though I never actually met her. Ah, here we are."

His house was a two-storey, dark-silver house with lighter trim and a dark-mahogany front door.

"Smith, are you sure that Jones won't try to eat me ?"

"Considering that he prefers women, I doubt he will try. Unless, of course, you are just that pretty."

The laughter his response got was still slightly nervous, but much less so. On Fate's all encompassing wings, the raven led the blue jay into the house.


	3. Wolf

**Wolf**

Jones's gaze drifted across the dais to his pale-skinned, white-blond haired friend Switch. The snowy owl shifter was watching their other friends, he followed the woman's gaze.

What he saw made him smile slightly as he watched Smith along with Neo shift forms and spiral out of the church's bell tower together. It made him remember the first time he'd seen the two of them together…

When Jones heard the front door open and closed, the wolf shifter expected Smith to walk into the beige-walled living room by himself. Except, seconds later Smith was followed by a very pretty, pale-skinned shifter, a male shifter, again.

He chuckled as he shared a look with Brown and asked, "It's a bit early for that isn't it ? It's not even five o'clock in the afternoon, yet."

While Smith glared at him, the black-haired man blushed a deep red and muttered, "So, that's what you meant."

Smith replied, "You are an idiot, Jones. Brown and Jones, this is Neo Anderson, he was just attacked in his blue jay form. Neo, these are my housemates Allen Jones and Sam Brown."

His wolfen instincts honed his gaze in on Neo as the blue jay nervously shifted his weight. Neo nodded, "It's, err, nice to meet you two." When Neo noticed his gaze the man snapped, "Would you stop looking at me like that ? I'm not prey !"

In response, he raised his hands, "I can't help that you're used to birds and not wolves."

As Smith ushered Neo away up the staircase, he spotted the drying blood on Neo's back. Brown turned to look at him, the gray-eyes mischievous, "What do you thinks going to happen after the healing ?"

The question made him shrug, "I don't know, Brown. One thing I do know is that even for Smith's tastes Neo's a pretty boy."

The skunk shifter agreed, "I know, he really is. I mean, sure they're still a bit smaller than a Tarsier's, but, I haven't seen eyes nearly that big since Chau's."

"Yes, then you broke up with her because your mother thought she was too foreign."

"Hey, at least, I can't break up with Neo."

It made him laugh as he countered with, "If only because if you were and you did Smith would kill you. Mark my words, something's going to go down there, or rather, up."

Smith shouted, "Would you two shut up ? I am trying to concentrate !"

Brown snickered, "You're going to hurt yourself, Smith."

"No, he's not, he already has."

The sound of a thud as Smith slammed the door to his bedroom shut…

Jones mentally shook the memory away as Switch walked past him to talk to Apoc. Apoc had long, curly, black-hair to go with dark-brown eyes and tanned-skin. His gaze drifted from the horse and owl shifters as Trinity, a black-haired raven shifter, approached him. "Well, Jones, you want to hit the bar early ?"

He'd never really talked to the pale-skinned and dark-eyed woman, but she seemed quite interesting. "I wouldn't mind, shall we ?"

Trinity nodded and they walked out of the church together.


	4. Horse

**Horse**

Apoc ran a hand through his hair, glad that as a horse shifter he didn't get tipsy or worse quite as easily as say Neo, Trinity or Smith because his animal form was bigger. Jones, Switch, Brown and he were the only ones still somewhat sober. Being tipsy made it harder to distinguish between shifter and regular, so they'd come to Farran's. Farran's was a shifter-only place, so, it didn't matter if someone accidentally shifted into a bear or something.

He laughed when Trinity pointed at Smith and said, "You know, I a'said youse was raragant."

The older raven shifter might have drunk even more than Trinity, but Smith could still talk straight, mostly. "I am not arrogant, drunk, yes but arrogant, not freaking thundering arrogant."

What got a round of laughter was Neo's muttered, "We-ell, don't lightning, some-something good or, or's couch. Least, least Apoc can't, ma…uh, run over some-some a you."

Those words made him remember when he'd first said that to Smith...a second later, he stopped just outside the forest in front of the two bird shifters, and he himself shifted back into human form. Switch swooped down and did the same; he and the gray-eyed woman looked at the FBI Agent. Just because Smith was FBI and they were PD didn't mean they had to try to shut it down right away. They all knew that Smith had magic, but if Smith had dared to use it to scare up anything. Well, the raven shifter would be very sorry.

Switch barked, "Why's he like winter best ?"

Smith looked over at Neo as he said, "He had a cat named Snow's Wing or simply Snow for short. Snow showed him how to hide from most predators using the snow and ice for cover if he was injured and that is why he favours winter."

As it clicked with what he'd grown up knowing he nodded. Now, it was his turn to ask a question, "What's his favourite music ?"

The answer from Smith was immediate, "Neo does not have any specific favourite type all the time. Yet, he has always preferred the band known as Fate's Feather and more specifically the song 'Sister Sky and Brother Earth'.

It made him exclaim, "You hear that, Father Fate ? Smith actually does know something about him, it's a miracle."

While he'd been talking, Neo had shaken and then buried his head in Smith's shoulder with the words, "Really, guys, really ? The whole shebang ?"

He replied, "We just want to make sure he's really in love with you. If you ever do anything, anything, intentional or not, I will run your feathery ass over and then Switch can take and dump you in a river, there shebang complete."

Neo said, "I'm sorry, love, I should've known they'd do this."

"At least, it shows that your friends as well truly care about you."

After that, they all shifted and had a race to see who could reach the city first…

Apoc smiled, well, he hoped, even more, now that considering the two were married he'd never have to run Smith over, ever. If he did, he could almost guarantee that it'd be the apocalypse that he'd been named for, but it'd never happen.


End file.
